Back in West Virginia, a dead northern short-tailed shrew:
This one was very dark in color, but they often come in silvery gray as well.
Their venom isn’t that powerful, but we have a family story of a dachshund that had a bad reaction to a shrew bite.
In my part of North America, this is the only venomous mammal, but there are four species of shrew in this genus (Blarina), and they are distributed over most of North America east of the Rockies.
I initially thought this was a young hairy-tailed mole, but the smaller feet gave it away instantly.
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